What are endometriosis symptoms?

Endometriosis can affect women differently. Dr. Magtibay describes the symptoms associated with endometriosis and explains that the amount of pain is often disproportionate to the amount of disease found in the pelvis.

Transcript
Endometriosis is one of those unusual phenomena that we have known for many years. It can be quite strange in the way it presents, meaning that women could have a pelvis full of endometriosis, they can have large tumors on their ovaries, they could have big implants of endometriosis on their rectum and involving all the pelvis and not have a lick of pain. They don’t complain at all and we only notice this on their physical exam findings.
But yet, you will have another woman who comes in with severe debilitating pain, especially pain with her periods or pain with intercourse or just general daily chronic pain. But then when we do a diagnostic evaluation and workup on those patients we just find small little flecks of endometriosis causing all of that pain.
And this has been recognized for years and written about in the medical literature historically for years that oftentimes these women have pain that’s disproportionate to the amount of disease that we find in the pelvis.

meet theexpert

Dr. Paul Magtibay Gynecologic Oncology and Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ
Paul M. Magtibay is chair of the Department of Medical and Surgical Gynecology at Mayo Clinic, AZ. His expertise includes minimally invasive robotic and laparoscopic surgical procedures for both benign and malignant conditions of the female pelvis. more about this expert »